Under Confucius's questioning, the hermit spoke.

He first talked about the origin of Yi, then talked about the relationship between Yi and divination, and then talked about King Wen's hexagram, as well as what hexagram is and what hexagram is for.

In the early days of human beings, human experience and knowledge were limited. Human knowledge is formed through a long period of accumulation through experience. Without a long period of accumulation, humans are no different from other animals, only chaotic and ignorant.

Legend has it that when Fuxi painted hexagrams, as soon as the sky was opened, human beings began to use the form of pictures to reflect things, and only then did the development of writing. What a great feat it is for human beings to express and describe things in the form of pictures.

With a simple stroke, you will see the directions of up and down, left and right, front and back, left and right, and so on. There are graphics, there are times and paragraphs, there are classifications.

In the I Ching, people divide things into two parts: the known and the unknowable. Everything is made up of the knowable part and the unknowable part. Later, the part that is visible and visible is called yang, and the part that is unknowable and invisible is called yin. The combination of yin and yang constitutes a complete whole!

Qian represents yang, and kun represents yin. Qian represents the father, and Kun represents the mother. The combination of yin and yang will inevitably give birth to new things, and the union of parents will inevitably give birth to children. This is the inevitable law of the development of things!

The four hexagrams of Qian, Kan, Gen and Zhen belong to the Yang hexagram. Thereinto! Gen is a young man, Kan is a middle man, and Zhen is an eldest man;

The four hexagrams of Kun, Dui, Li, and Xun belong to the Yin hexagram. Among them: the girl is the middle daughter, and Xun is the eldest daughter.

Giving birth to a boy and a girl is said to start with acquired gossip! It evolved from the theory of innate gossip! In the innate gossip, there is no such thing as giving birth to a boy or a girl.

Innate gossip is to observe and record the development and operation of things! The acquired Bagua diagram not only observes the development and operation of things. And! It also studies and predicts the inevitable consequences of the development of things.

In the innate gossip, the development and operation of the observed things are only recorded in a circle. Because! The development and operation of anything can be represented by a circle.

The acquired gossip not only observes the development and operation of things, but also studies and predicts the possible outcomes.

The acquired gossip also studies what will happen when various things intersect with each other!

There will inevitably be a result in the development and operation of anything. The result? What the result looks like depends entirely on how things come together. That is, the environment, conditions, and so on will inevitably lead to different results. So! The results are not the same!

The order in which the acquired Bagua diagrams are arranged is different from the order in which the innate Bagua diagrams are arranged, and here's why. The acquired thing is to pay attention to what kind of results will occur when mutual growth and mutual restraint, and use legends to interpret and illustrate the problem. And innate is about the development and operation of things! The order is used, which is a circle. Anything can be represented by a circle! Therefore, it is said that "Yi" gave birth to boys and girls from the acquired gossip!

In the innate Bagua diagram, the eldest male and the eldest female are a result of the change of yin and yang.

The eldest male refers to the beginning of the change from yin to yang, and there is yang in yin, so it is called the eldest man.

The eldest daughter refers to the beginning of the change from yang to yin, and there is yin in yang, so it is called the eldest daughter.

The middle man and the middle woman are determined according to the two symbols between yin and yang in the innate Bagua diagram! The symbol in the middle from yang to yin is called the middle man. At this time, yin and yang are in half, which is the dividing line between yin and yang. But! Because it changes from yang to yin, yin dominates, and there is yang in yin, it is called a middle man; In the same way, the symbol in the middle from yin to yang is called the middle woman. At this time, yin and yang are in half, which is the dividing line between yin and yang. But! Because it is changed from yin to yang, yang is dominant, and there is yin in yang, so it is called a middle woman;

In the same way, the symbol that ends from yin to yang is called a maiden. At this time, from yin to yang, yang dominates. But! There is still yin in the yang, and it has not yet reached the full yang, so it is called a maiden; In the same way, the symbol that lasts from yang to yin is called a young man. At this time, from yang to yin, yin begins to dominate. But! There is still yang in the yin, and it has not yet reached the full yin, so it is called a young man;

In the Fuxi era, there was no writing, only various symbols. People use various symbols to represent things and mark various things.

In the Fuxi period, semiotics was quite mature. Fu Xi uses the yang to represent the visible side of things, and the broken yang to represent the unknowable side of things. He also used three yangs to represent heaven, earth and man, and three broken yangs to represent the unknown side of heaven, earth and man, as well as human beings.

The broken yang is what people later called the yin. The yin is just the broken yang, which represents the mysterious side that things don't know. Yin or yang, they all represent something! In fact! Yin and Yang are a whole, and it represents something complete.

By the time of King Wen, people gave the Fuxi gossip symbol to words. Use the Qiankun Zhen Xun Kan Ligendui to replace the symbol to illustrate things. And then give these symbols an environment! Represent the environment with heaven and earth, thunder, wind, water, volcanoes! Such! It constitutes a living environment!

How will things change in this environment? This is what the gossip of King Wen wants to tell people! People predict the outcome of things by changes in their environment! By observing the changes in the external environment and finding appropriate ways to deal with the environment, you can proactively change the results!

There is heaven above, and there is earth below, and man is in heaven and earth. Man depends on heaven and earth for his survival! Only by understanding the relationship between heaven, earth and man can people live better!

If it is represented by a circle, the upper part of the circle is the sky, the lower part is the earth, and the middle part is where people live.

Only by understanding the mysteries of heaven and earth and the attributes of heaven and earth can people live better!

So! Human initiative and initiative are very important! If man is passive, his position in heaven and earth is very small, very small! Even insignificant, like all things, can only be an ordinary part of the heavens and the earth!

Since the heavens are unfathomable, the heavens are above the people. Earth! Virtuous, people can also get a lot of visible benefits from it, so! Man is on top of the earth! This also reflects the initiative of people!

Divination is used by some wise men in this era to prove that their judgments come from the will of heaven, so as to make firm decisions. To put it bluntly, it's about finding a reason for your decision. You are not obtained by divination, but if it is providential, others will not believe you. Therefrom! Divination has become a talisman for the wise and a means of pretending to be a god and a ghost.

(End of chapter)